If There’s A Price Tag On The Information, Look Elsewhere For Your Answer

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Why Give a Damn:

The need to get the right information is universal. There are three questions you must never forget to ask. In this post, you’ll discover the first question that will save you time, money, and possibly lives.

The author of this post, Ann Garvin is an author, speaker and professor of health, stress management, research methods and media literacy.

I just returned from my father’s urologist visit. This is what we all have to look forward to, a meeting about the plumbing inside the people we love. After handshakes we sat, and the MD who biopsied my dad’s prostate said, “You have cancer.”

My father thought for a moment and asked, “What would you recommend I do if I was your father?”

He’s 82 and this is not his first rodeo.

Here’s what he didn’t do. He didn’t lose his nerve at the mention of the C word. He did not drop his notebook and stumble to the nearest computer to Google prostrate cancer treatments. He knew that his greatest resource at the moment was in front of him. He’d done his research before he entered the office. He’s 82 and this is not his first rodeo.

The need to get the right information is universal for all kinds of living and dying; for innovators, entrepreneurs and the student at a crossroad.

There are three questions you must never forget to ask. In this post, I will go over the first question that will save you time, money, and possibly lives.

Who

The first question, the question my father asked before he was ever examined was simply, “Who?” When a piece of information is offered up, you must learn to forget the packaging, how it makes you feel, your hopes, your dreams, your desires and ask, “Who? Who says? Who said? Who dat?”

Let’s take another health example, one that may be very useful for you personally if you want to feed the poor. Let’s talk about wheat.

Wheat has gotten a bad rap lately it’s been blamed for obesity, diabetes and addictions. If you really want to know the skinny on wheat, get your information from people who have nothing to sell to you; not a book, not a diet plan, not a wheat free bagel. These people, with regards to nutrition for example are, The Center for Science in the Public Interest a non-profit advocate for nutrition and health, food safety and sound science, or Marion Nestle, a Professor in the department of Nutrition, Food Studies, & Public health at New York University and prolific author. They report the science, not sell the science.

They report the science, not sell the science.

So what do these people say about wheat? Wheat does not make people fat and sick and unless you have celiac disease or wheat allergies, eating whole-wheat foods is good for you. Marion Nestle’s, the first lady of nutrition debunks the popular wheat related myths in the following ways: The rise in obesity is not caused by increased wheat consumption, wheat starch is not undesirable, whole wheat bread does not have a higher glycemic index than sugar and wheat is not addictive.

I live for this no-nonsense, fact-based information. There’s no price tag associated with this information. Next time someone says to you, “Did you know humans shouldn’t eat wheat?” You can say, “Marion Nestle says No, that is not true.” If they’re smart they’ll say, “Who Dat?”

After our initial day of bad news my dad went off to collect referrals for all the possible types of treatment that might be available to him. In fifteen minutes I listened to my dad ask “Who?” probably fifteen times and then proceeded to ask the other two questions that will likely save his life and maybe yours, too.

Stay tuned…..

The need to get the right information is universal; for innovators, entrepreneurs and the student at a crossroad. Tweet This Quote

Author Ann Garvin

Ann is an author, speaker and educator. As professor of health, stress management, research methods and media literacy at University of Wisconsin Whitewater, she has worked extensively in psychometrics, statistics and psychology. Ann is the author of On Maggie’s Watch & The Dog Year (Berkley Penguin, 2014).